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Things people keep
PRINCE FREDERICK
Name: Sankaran Raman
Collection: 250 historical seals, rings and assorted jewellery
Sankaran Raman’s collection of ancient metal crafts is very ‘impressive’. Considering that it includes ancient seals, this is not surprising. Some of these instruments of authentication belong to the Nayak dynasty. They carry indentations in Telugu, while the seals issued by the Nayaks’ predecessors, the Vijayanagaram rulers, have words from the Devanagiri script. Sankaran also has seals in Urdu and Persian.
By sending the scanned images of such seals to like-minded collectors in other parts of world, he gets to know what they denote. Through this method, he found out that one seal glorifies the name of Akbar in Persian. If Brahmi words or symbols have been punched into any seal, he takes it to Iravatham Mahadevan, a man whose ability to interpret the Brahmi script is unparalleled. Raman refers to Mahadevan as his guru, as the celebrated epigraphist provides him a wealth of information about ancient seals.
Seals with easily readable Tamil words, in use in the early part of the last century, are also part of the collection. The seals come in a variety of materials — lead, copper, silver and even terracotta.
Where does Raman get these seals that glimmer with history? River beds. He relies on the Irulas, primarily those based in Karur and Madurai, who search river beds for rare metals. Raman also buys rare jewellery that they bring to him.
A majority of his rings are meant for the purpose of identification; they were not necessarily worn.
The most exquisite of Raman’s jewellery is an ayumbunai thali, which has five symbols depicting weapons. This was worn by a woman to ward off any harm that may come to her warrior husband who is fighting in the battlefield. And to think that this beautiful piece has been made using just a gram of gold! ( freddie@thehindu.co.in)
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